


Love Me Mercilessly

by Gefionne



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Enemies to Begrudging Lovers, F/M, Squirting Orgasms, hatefucking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26344594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gefionne/pseuds/Gefionne
Summary: Since she came aboard theEnterprise, Ensign Ro Laren has fought Will Riker at every turn. She countermands his orders and questions him in front of captain and crew. Her maddening insubordination comes to a head one night when Riker least expects it, and they find their on-duty friction leads to another kind altogether when they’re alone.
Relationships: Ro Laren/William Riker
Comments: 14
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

_I will show no mercy for you.  
_ _You had no mercy for me.  
_ _The only thing that I ask, love me mercilessly._

**“Hatefuck,” The Bravery**

* * *

Night watches were long marches of tedium, replete with systems checks and routine maintenance. The bridge’s lighting was turned low to simulate darkness—to keep their circadian rhythms in balance—but Will disliked how it gave the consoles and seating soft edges. The muzziness made the already sleepy eight-hour watch harder to endure.

He never permitted himself coffee on duty, dooming him to heavy-lidded lethargy as he sat in the captain’s chair. Forcing his back straight, hands braced on his knees, was often the only way to keep himself awake in the deeper part of the night cycle. That and the snatches of conversation he could eke out of the skeleton crew.

Some in Starfleet command believed that collegial goodwill wasn’t appropriate for a first officer. They expected more rigid and formal deportment—like Captain Picard. But Will’s style relied on his levity; his charm, to be colloquial. He liked to joke, to smile with his fellow officers, even those who answered to him. It was too relaxed, maybe, but Commander William T. Riker liked to be liked; he thrived off the admiration.

And most often he got what he wanted. He had a knack for putting people at ease, and when there was even the slightest hint of friction, he found a way to relieve it and smooth his relationship with anyone.

Except Ensign Ro.

She’d come aboard the _Enterprise_ with her bad reputation preceding her, and her attitude had proved that she had earned it wholesale. Will had been prepared to offer her the benefit of the doubt, but she had thrown his goodwill back in his face with insubordinate spite.

She had directly countermanded both his orders and Captain Picard’s, which should have landed her back in the prison she’d been released from following her court-martial. Yet, she had proved to be invaluable in settling the incident with Orta, the Bajorans, and the Cardassians, and somehow earned the captain’s good faith.

To Will’s supreme disapproval, she’d been permitted to stay on the _Enterprise_ , taking over Wesley Crusher’s post at the conn.

Tonight, as Will sat in his own place on the bridge, he could see the back of her neatly brushed and styled hair where she sat with her back to him, diligently watching the conn for any unwarranted changes. The low light caught the glinting silver of the earring around her left ear, worn in the traditional Bajoran way. It was nonregulation, but the captain permitted it out of respect for her cultural traditions.

Will believed with utter conviction that she wore it with rebellious malice, simply to be contrary. Despite himself, though, he had to admit that it suited the delicate curve of her ear, accentuating a long and slender neck where the charm-decked chain hung.

Even in the face of an obstinate, sometimes explosive temper, Will was willing to acknowledge that Ro was a beautiful woman. Bajorans were usually tall and slender, like her, but the wrinkling at the narrow bridge of her nose was particularly elegant. The way it curved naturally into arched eyebrows and gave her a severe, even judgmental expression suited her prominent cheekbones and shapely jaw. Her mouth was small, but the upper lip had an enticing bow, the lower full and equally inviting.

Will was a connoisseur of beautiful women—that aforementioned charm winning him entry into many private quarters over the years—but Ro had always been wholly immune to him, which only served to irk him more than did her contradictory spirit alone. If she didn’t make him so blindingly furious in most of their interactions, he would have been determined to woo her.

He snorted at the old-fashioned term. It sounded like something out Barclay’s holodeck programs, not his manner of seduction.

“Did you say something, sir?” asked Lieutenant McKay at the science station.

“No, nothing,” Will replied. “Just an itch in my nose.” He tapped the side of it, smiling.

McKay returned the smile, oddly perky for the late hour. “Right, sir.”

Will, coming a little more awake, called out, “Computer, what’s our current course?”

“Course set at one-eleven point eight nine seven,” the computer responded.

Will’s good humor faded. That was twelve degrees off the course he had ordered toward Onlyn II at the start of the watch. “That’s not correct,” he said. “When was the course adjusted, and by whom?”

“Course changed at oh-two hundred hours by Ensign Ro Laren.”

The look Will cast at Ro could have curdled milk, and she had the audacity to remain silent and facing forward.

“Ensign Ro, explain yourself,” Will snapped, sitting slightly forward in the captain’s chair to keep from standing and stomping over to her to loom as he glowered.

Unhurried, Ro turned her chair toward him. “The original course would have taken us six light years out of the way. The new one brings us to Onlyn II nearly an entire hour earlier.”

Will did not miss the lack of “sir” in her reply, and it rankled him. He suppressed the annoyance, turning over the plotted course in his mind. He said to her, “The way you’ve set takes us too close to the Onlyn sun. It puts undue stress on the ship’s solar shielding.”

Ro blinked once at him, unfazed. “I ran the calculations, and the stress is negligible. It would be no more than passing by a supergiant at twelve thousand light years. Onlyn’s sun is a red dwarf. The _Enterprise_ is more than equipped to withstand the radiation and heat.”

“That’s not your decision to make, Ensign,” Will said, now getting to his feet. Ro’s gaze followed the motion, but her impassive expression didn’t change. “Any course corrections _must_ be approved by the ranking officer on the bridge before they’re made.”

“I didn’t see the need to bother you with it,” said Ro. “It’s a minor correction.”

Will’s anger rose again. “It is still protocol to alert me. If you can’t follow basic Starfleet procedure, you’re relieved.”

Now her eyes flashed with familiar fury. “Are you ordering me off the bridge, Commander?” His rank was spat with venom.

“Yes, Ensign,” he said, stolid. “You _are_ relieved.”

She shot to her feet, and for a moment Will thought she was going to leave without a fight, but then she took a long step forward, leveling him with a glare. “I do my job—maybe better than you do yours—and you throw me off the bridge. So typical. You can’t stand to be one-upped.”

Will, forceful, countered, “Is that what you were trying to do? One-up me? Just to show off how good you think you are?”

“I _am_ good,” she snarled. “I’m excellent. One of the best navigators on this ship, if not _the_ best.”

She wasn’t altogether wrong, but Will wasn’t about to concede that. “And so modest, too,” he said. “Ensign, you are being openly defiant of your superior officer’s orders. I could confine you to quarters.”

“You think I’m afraid of you?” she said, her nose wrinkling with her fiery disdain. “Go ahead and do it, _Commander Riker_ , and see what the captain thinks in the morning when you’ve changed back to your inefficient course.”

Will would regret it later, but just then he couldn’t control the indignation. He raised his voice as he ordered, “You are confined to quarters, Ensign! Get off my bridge!”

Ro gave her head a short, disgusted jerk, and moved around him, making for the turbolift. The door hissed open, and Will ventured a last scowl at her as she entered the lift and turned to face him, her face a mask of fury.

When the doors closed again, Will let out an exasperated sigh. Ensign Ro was the only person in the galaxy who made him lose his composure so frequently, and he hated it; hated _her_ for it.

Collapsing into the captain’s chair again, he could feel the tension suffusing the bridge. The eyes of the other officers were on him, their surprise worn clearly.

Will was suddenly exhausted. He said, “Computer, wake Ensign Upcastle and get him here to take over the conn.” He paused for a moment, considering the efficiency of Ro’s course versus his own. He spoke to the computer again: “And maintain current course.”

* * *

When Captain Picard came onto the bridge at oh-seven hundred, Will was standing, waiting to greet him. After Ensign Ro had been ordered away, he had recorded the incident in the ship’s log, and the rest of the watch had passed uneventfully.

Upcastle had appeared shortly after Ro had gone, sleep still clinging him, and Will was sorry for it. He had held his tongue, though, and just let Upcastle do his work. He had been nearly silent himself, and chatter among the officers had been limited to business.

“Good night, Number One?” Picard asked as he took his chair.

“Middling, sir,” Will replied, “but we’re on course to reach Onlyn II in three hours.”

Picard raised his eyebrows. “So soon?”

Will inclined his head. “Ensign Ro found a way to shorten the route, though we’re passing closer to the sun.”

“Indeed,” said Picard thoughtfully. “And where is Ensign Ro now?”

“Confined to quarters, sir.”

The edges of the captain’s mouth turned down. He didn’t press for details, however, saying only, “I assume it’s been logged.”

“Yes, sir,” said Will, his hands behind his back and shoulders square.

“Good.” Picard shifted in his chair, crossing his left leg over the right. “Thank you, Number One. Go get some rest.”

Will nodded once, curtly, and made his way to the turbolift, feeling the weight of the night around his neck like a millstone.

The right thing to do was to return to his quarters, have a hot shower, and then sleep, but expecting that Picard would disapprove of how he handled Ro set him on edge. He wanted to deal with her, chastise her, put her in her place. It was a stupid idea—one that he would make against his generally sound judgment—and yet he found himself ordering the lift to take him to Deck Nine.

Within five minutes, he was standing outside Ensign Ro’s door, his fingers poised to alert her to his presence. He weighed leaving for a second or two, but then pressed the panel, eliciting a chime.

“Enter,” called Ro from inside.

As Will moved closer, the doors hissed open. Ro’s quarters were decorated in vibrant colors of red and purple, Bajoran trinkets that glinted like her earring scattered with intention around the few shelves and tables. Her double bed was neatly made, clearly un-slept-in that night.

Ro herself was seated in a chaise across from the door, and she looked up from the tablet she held as Will entered. She had changed from her uniform into a fitted blouse and loose pants, the fabric of which spread wide around her legs. Her feet were bare.

“Commander Riker,” she said icily. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Now that he was here, Will wasn’t exactly sure what to say. He wasn’t skilled at telling someone off; the words didn’t come naturally. He stood still at the center of the floor, regarding Ro without speaking.

Her brow furrowed, extenuating the Bajoran features of her nose, and she set the tablet down. “If you’ve come to berate me, best get it over with.”

The snarky tone riled Will, and he found his voice. It wasn’t a dressing-down, though, but a question: “Why do you do it? Why do you fight me on every little thing?”

Ro regarded him steadily, presumably weighing her reply. Usually she had a sharp retort right away. Will wondered if he had caught her off-guard by coming to her quarters. He liked to think he set her as off balance as she did him.

When she did reply, it was more sedately than most of their snappish exchanges. “I thought that should be obvious by now. I don’t like the way you command. You’re too careful, won’t take the necessary risks to get the job done. It’s like you’re scared to make the decisions that really matter.”

Will took it in stride, having heard similar criticism in the past—if put less bluntly. He’d turned down so many captaincies now that scuttlebutt around Starfleet said he was too afraid to step out Jean-Luc Picard’s shadow. That wasn’t exactly accurate, but it wasn’t totally _in_ accurate, either.

He loved the _Enterprise_. He loved serving with Captain Picard. He was fully capable of captaining his own ship, but there was some responsibility he wasn’t quite prepared to take on. He was glad to remain first officer and have some manner of freedom, where as a captain, he would not.

“Not liking my command style doesn’t give you leave to break regulations _or_ not follow my orders,” he said to Ro. “As a Starfleet officer, it’s your duty to obey.”

Ro scoffed. “I am not an automaton who blindly does as she’s told. If I think you’re wrong, I’m going to say it.”

Will, frustrated, began to pace. “There are ways to give your opinion that aren’t insubordinate,” he said. “You could have told me about that course correction before you did it, and I would have considered it.”

“Shot it down, you mean,” Ro snapped.

“No!” said Will, strident. He turned, sticking a finger out toward her. “It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, I kept us on that course after you left. We’re ahead of schedule, as expected. The captain was pleased.” Maybe an overstatement, but Picard hadn’t been _dis_ pleased. “If you’d just _asked me_ instead of doing it without permission—”

Ro rolled off the chaise, advancing on Will until the tip of his finger was inches from her collarbone. “You wouldn’t have admitted that in front of the rest of the crew. Your ego wouldn’t let you.” She slapped his hand away, incensed. “You’re unbearable, the way you strut around this ship like every woman fantasizes about you, wants to get her hands under your uniform. You’re the worst kind of peacock.”

Will reeled back, the barbs coming fast and shocking. He recovered as fast as he could, saying, “So it’s personal, too? You don’t like how I command, and you don’t like me personally.”

“That’s right,” said Ro. She was veritably shaking with anger, her face set, mouth twisted. “If no one else is going to tell you that not _everyone_ wants you, then I will.”

He looked hard at her, impressed by her vehemence. Her features were so fine, especially in her fits of upset. The chain of her earring swung slightly, the beads catching the light of a standing lamp in the corner and throwing glowing spots of green and blue against her jaw. Will had the sudden desire to taste those pools of color, and the soft skin under them.

He might have laughed. There she was, telling him how deeply she _didn’t_ like him and did not want him, and he was imagining putting his lips under the strong line of her chin. He wondered if her cheeks were as warm as they looked—pink from pique—if he touched them. Would she go soft under his hands from a brush of the right places?

“What are you staring at?” she demanded.

“Do you want me to look away?” he asked in reply. “Face the wall while you tell me you hate me?”

She screwed up her mouth again, teeth clenched. “What I wouldn’t give not to have to look at your face.”

The laugh almost broke free then, Will so off kilter that amusement supplanted his anger. But before it could, Ro put two firm hands on his cheeks and pulled him down to her mouth.

She kissed him in hard, demanding presses. She was furious still, and Will absorbed the furor as she tongued the seam of his lips. He opened. She slid inside, insistent and hungry.

Will operated on instinct, his neurons having shorted out as soon as he tasted her. The whiplash of frustration to affront to blood-boiling desire muddled his head. But the sensation of Ro’s tongue in his mouth and the firmness of her body when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his chest were pin-prick sharp. His night watch tiredness evaporated.

Ro withdrew from the kiss slightly, but only to take his lower lip between her teeth and nibble it. Will ran his hands up from the small of her back to her shoulder blades. He felt nothing under the fitted blouse. Her breasts were soft against his chest. He caressed her back, pulling his lip free of her mouth.

“I see that you don’t want me,” he said, low and deep. “Not at all.”

Her eyes were dark as she met his gaze, and he could see the lust in them, mixed with antagonism. She said nothing, instead moving her right hand from his face, down his chest, and then between his legs. He was only half-hard, but well on his way to full arousal if she kept at this—whatever it was.

Ro rubbed his cock over his uniform trousers, her throat working as she swallowed. “Are you everything your lovers say you are, Riker?”

“What do they say?” he asked, pushing his groin into her palm.

She toyed with the top of his ear, turning her eyes down to the hollow of his throat. “That you can pleasure them for hours.”

Will did his best not to preen, knowing it would trigger her rage. While he wasn’t totally unsure he didn’t _want_ to do that, he tipped her face up, tracing the bow of her lip with his thumb. “Do you want to find out?”

Her scowl sent a jolt to his cock, and for a moment he thought she was going to shove him away. But instead she took two fistfuls of his shirt and dragged him to her again, kissing him open-mouthed.

The tie to her loose pants was at her back, and took only one sure tug to undo. The gossamer material slipped untethered down her legs, puddling at their feet. Will broke the kiss to admire her, and he stooped slightly to run his hands up her thighs to her buttocks. She exhaled, hot against his neck, as he traced the hem of her underwear, the tip of his finger slipping beneath it.

She pulled at his collar, baring his neck for her to bite. He hissed in surprise, grasping her ass to haul her against him. She threw one leg over his hip, pressing her center against his groin. He rolled his hips to tease her with his erection. She made a half-gasped sound and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“Sensitive,” he murmured into her hair. “Could you come from just this?”

Ro answered by pressing herself closer to him, and, taking a firm grip on her, he began to grind against her core. She moaned, as throaty and wholehearted as any of her insults had been. This was a side of her Will had never anticipated, but oh, how he wanted to explore more of it now.

Her bare skin was burning hot in his hands. He yearned to feel all of her against him, sinuous and ready. His imagination ran wild at the thought of slipping his fingers into her warmth.

He waited, though, holding her tightly as they rubbed against each other, his cock trapped in his pants and her underwear still on. She was panting, her damp lips at his throat. She mouthed him there, murmuring something in what he assumed was Bajoran.

“What are you saying?” he asked.

Her voice was strained as she responded, “I’m cursing you. Damning you for this.”

Will tensed, questioning if this was her saying she’d changed her mind. “We can stop,” he said.

“Bastard!” she cried, clutching at him. “Don’t stop! I’m so close, Riker. D-Don’t stop.”

He throbbed with pleasure, renewing his efforts in thrusting his cock between her legs. She was trembling and gasping, a great deal of her weight on him to keep herself upright. He held her, thrilling at her lack of restraint. The confrontational, neatly turned-out Ensign Ro was coming apart in his arms as she rubbed herself to climax against him.

She cried out something in Bajoran as she came, and Will felt a rush of heat on his cock, dampening the front of his pants. Next time, he was going to feel her orgasm bare, from inside her, and enjoy that burst of fluid over his cock.

“Was that good?” he said, still caressing her backside, down to her legs.

She huffed. “You _would_ ask, even though you already know the answer. Just to hear me say it was good. Stroke your Galaxy Class ego.” She pulled back until he could see her face, which was flushed, sex-drunk.

That was enough to tell him he’d done well; she didn’t have to speak. Still, he pressed, “Say it.”

Ro shook her head. “Fuck me first, and then maybe I’ll tell you you did a good job.”

Will’s cock jumped at the crassness. The women he preferred tended to be a bit more demure in the bedroom, but Ro was far from that, and Will found himself addicted to her demanding mercilessness. Where he prided himself on his slow lovemaking, today he was going to give her exactly what she wanted; and what he himself was suddenly craving.

“You’re dithering,” Ro said, accusatory at his delay; it had been barely a few seconds, he thought. She continued, “That’s just like you, too. Leaving the initiative to better men.”

Taking her by the upper arms, Will forced her to look at him. “Are you saying you want a different man right now?” he demanded. “I’ll go.”

It would take iron will to force him out of her quarters now, but the threat wasn’t empty if she was going to belittle him.

“Don’t,” she snarled, grabbing his shirt front again. “Don’t you dare walk out on me, Riker.”

“Then behave yourself,” he said as he pried her fingers from his uniform and opened them wide. He watched her watch him as he took her middle finger into his mouth, and he saw her eyes go glassy again. Her eagerness had him rock-hard.

“I don’t take your orders here,” she said, even as he sucked at her fingers, kissing their tips.

“You do if you want to come again,” he told her firmly. “Pleasure you for hours, right?” At her shudder, he grinned, feral. “How many times can you come in one night, Ro?”

“Arrogant ass,” she said, albeit without much conviction. “And it’s not even eight in the morning, not nighttime.”

Will shrugged, lips at the center of her palm. “You won’t need to count anyway. Each one will be better than the last.”

Ro’s mouth popped open, and Will felt a surge of triumph. Laying her hand against his shoulder, he moved to her blouse. It was easy enough to pull up over her head, disordering her hair and baring her breasts. The nipples were pert and dusky, ready for his mouth. He held back, first taking one between his thumb and forefinger and rolling it, teasing the peak. Ro dropped her head back, though she kept her hold on him.

With his left hand, Will cupped between her legs. Her underwear were soaked through from her release, and she made a low, erotic sound when he rubbed her there. He needed to feel her without the fabric.

He released her breast, taking her other nipple into his mouth and sucking as he eased her underwear down her thighs. They fell where her discarded pants were, and she was his for the taking. Her center was warm and slick, more than ready for his cock. His fingers would have to do for now, as he suckled her nipple.

She said something else in Bajoran as he worked two fingers inside her, his thumb at her clitoris. Then, in English, “I hate that you’re so good at this. I hate telling you that, too.” She drew in a sharp breath as he curled his fingers. “But I knew you would be. Damn you, I _knew_ it.”

“You’ve thought about this before,” Will said, as if he had just realized it.

“Go to Hell.”

He rubbed her faster, with vindictive, punitive pleasure, fucking his fingers deep into her. “Do Bajorans believe in Hell?”

He didn’t get a proper response; instead Ro cried out and came all over his hand. He pushed her through it, until the aftershocks had abated and she was leaning against him again.

Will breathed in the scent of her clean skin and the musk between her legs. With hope, he could get a taste of it. That in mind, he made to scoop up her by the buttocks and carry her to bed, but she stood firm, a hand over his thumping heart.

When he looked toward the mattress, she said, “You are _never_ getting in my bed.”

“Where then?” Will asked.

Ro grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him toward the chaise. It would be small for them both, but Will had been in worse positions. He nearly yelped, though, as Ro shoved him back onto it and climbed on top of him.

She kissed him first, her tongue hot in his mouth, before reaching for the zipper at the back of his uniform. She lowered it in distracted fits and starts, until she could peel it from his body and toss it away. When his chest was bare, she put her hands in the hair that dusted it, making circles with her petite palms.

There was fascination in her expression as she surveyed him, and perhaps begrudging admiration. He suppressed the smile he would have shared with anyone else. He took hold of her hips, his thumbs at the crests of the bones. She could take him just like this, and he would gladly watch as her breasts bounced and his cock slipped into her body. Maybe then she could come on him as he wanted her to.

“Have you been with a human?” he said to her as she tweaked his nipples.

“Not in a while,” she replied. Her tone was wry as she continued, “Don’t tell me you desperately wanted to be my first human.”

Will shook his head.

“Good.” Her slender fingers trailed down to his belt, where she deftly flicked open the button of his fly. His cock was straining against it, begging to be released. As if she understood, Ro wasted no time in unzipping the pants and putting her hand inside.

Will didn’t bother to suppress the relieved groan as she wrapped her fingers around him and gave a firm stroke. She was confident about it, far from hesitant, and Will was sure when he climaxed, it was going to be hard and strong.

Only the tip of him was peeking out of his underwear as she stroked, and she was massaging his stomach, right over his navel. She had a singular focus about her, which he recognized from her determined shifts on the bridge. There was no debate that she took her job in Starfleet seriously. And quite apparently, she took most other tasks seriously as well.

Itching to see her small hand on his cock, Will took hold of his pants and began to push them over his hips and down, revealing himself to her. His boots were still on, but he didn’t care. Ro swept low and took him into her mouth.

“ _Yes_ ,” Will sighed when she took him particularly deep, her mouth stretched wide around his length. She sucked him slowly, and without a mess of saliva. Her right hand was braced on the chaise beside them and her left was cradling his testicles. When she took him in, the cool chain of her earring touched the crook of his leg, and he trembled.

Ro perked up, eyeing him just above to tip of his cock, her lips red. “You like this,” she said.

“It’s good of you to use your smart mouth for something other than arguing with me,” Will needled, earning him a scowl. But in retaliation, she licked a long stripe up the underside of him, the tip of her tongue breaking a droplet of fluid at the tip. He couldn’t stop the groan at the feeling and the sight.

“Do a lot of women suck your cock, Riker?” Ro asked, even as she lapped again at the crown of him. “Are they falling all over themselves to get you down their throats?”

Will narrowed his eyes, unsure whether or not she was maliciously baiting him and would pull away if he said the wrong thing. He really didn’t want her to pull away. “I don’t expect every woman to be a conquest,” he said.

Ro’s laugh was high and mocking. “Oh, please. You’re the epitome of a conquistador: turning on your patented personality when you see any lifeform with a damp place between her legs.” She bared her teeth in a biting grin. “Or maybe you just need a warm mouth.”

Will’s irritation flared, and while he was tempted to take a firm hold of Ro’s dark hair and pull warningly, he wasn’t a brute. “I choose my lovers carefully,” he told her, tone as level as he could keep it while her face and lips were still so close to his aching cock.

“Do you?” asked Ro, one of her sculpted eyebrows arched. “I disagree. You’re more or less a whore, Riker.”

Will sat up, defensive. “Now, wait just one damn minute! I’m not the one who started this.”

But he was very willingly participating, he noted inwardly. A beautiful woman had seduced him; who was he to say no?

As if she had read his thoughts, Ro smiled knowingly. “But given the opportunity,” she said, “you won’t turn down a fuck.”

“It’s not always like that,” Will insisted. “It’s not…” He hesitated, and Ro finished for him, “Fucking?” She laughed coldly. “No, I’m sure you don’t think it is.”

There was condemnation in that, but Will didn’t have adequate time to process it as Ro dove back down and resumed sucking him. Somehow, she twisted her tongue in just the right way to drive him mad, and while he had considerable self-control, it wasn’t limitless. He watched her take as much of him as he could until he began to feel the start of a rising orgasm.

“Enough,” he said, reaching down to stop her. “It’ll be over to too soon if you keep going, and I want to be inside you.”

Ro peered up, her gaze heavy more with passion now than with anger. “I would say it doesn’t matter what you want, but in this case, I want the same thing.” She squeezed him, making a frustrated noise. “Of course you would have a nice cock.”

“Ride me,” Will said, still firmly holding her hips. “I can get you on your back, but—”

“No,” Ro interrupted. She put her palm to his cheek, the heel of her hand against his beard. “I want to see you when you come for me.”

Will, struck, said, “I thought you’d rather not be forced to look at my face.” Ro frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but Will laid a finger over her lips. “Never mind. Forget I said it.”

She weighed that for a second or two, but then, decisively, crawled up Will’s body until her center was poised over his cock. He could feel her wetness at his tip, but he waited for her to move him into her. She met his eyes as she sank down onto him, and Will felt it like a blow to his gut, knocking the air from his lungs.

Difficult as Ro Laren was, as much as he disliked her attitude, and how much she fundamentally disliked so much of him, when his cock entered her willing body, there was a shock of understanding, of raw communion that sidelined the bad blood between them. It was disarming for Will, and he recognized the same reaction in her.

They were still and silent for the space of few breaths, and then, as Ro began to move, they came back to themselves, and the peace faded back into fervor.

Ro fucked like a wild thing. The abandon of her grinding against him before became even more frenzied as she rode Will’s cock, making the chaise shudder. She moaned nonsense in Bajoran. He wondered what she was saying, but reasoned that she would have said it in a language he could understand if she wanted him to hear it. Even in sex, private thoughts could be kept.

Will drank in her display, running his hands all over her body as she rolled her hips, rising and falling on top of him. She was tight, wet, and so, so hot inside that it wouldn’t be long before he lost himself. But he wasn’t yet ready to let go of the vision of her: the difficult officer with neat hair gone careless and body made pliable by fury-driven lust. She was absolutely stunning.

“Touch me,” she said, grasping for his hand and sticking it between her legs.

He used his forefingers to massage her, eliciting an immediate, breathless reaction. She rode him harder, pushing her core into him to bring herself off. Will rose with her, the pressure building at the base of his spine and coiling through his shaft and down into his testicles.

“Come for me, Ro,” he said. “Let me feel you.”

“Damn you, Riker,” she groaned, “and your perfect cock, your perfect fingers. Your voice. I hate you. I hate that I want you. I— Oh, _yes_!” She arched against Will’s hand, her release warming his cock inside her and dripping out to where they were joined.

The sight and the overwhelming sensation sent Will careening over the edge into climax, his hips stuttering as he thrust a last time and spilled himself into her. His eyes were screwed tight shut, the nails of his left hand digging into Ro’s thigh. He only realized he might be hurting her when the power of the orgasm subsided. Opening his eyes again, he saw her above him, her chin to her chest and her hands resting on his lower belly.

“Ro?” he asked softly. “Are you all right?”

She looked up then, and he saw how sated she was, eyes half-closed. “I’ll tell you when I can feel my legs again,” she said.

Will spared a second of concern, and then he chuckled. To his surprise, Ro laughed too, and he felt her muscles contract around his overly sensitive cock. He winced.

Ro didn’t express any worry over it, but she was quick to slip him out from inside her and, hand between her thighs to catch any of the mess, clambered off of him to fetch a towel from the head. It came flying at him, landing just under his chin, before she shut the door.

Will mopped the wetness and spend from himself as he heard the water running in the head. He considered briefly staying sprawled out on the chaise in nothing but winkled pants and his boots, but he didn’t think that’s how Ro would want to find him when she came out.

And wasn’t how he wanted to be found, either. He felt oddly exposed, where he was usually perfectly comfortable being naked. There had been no compunction before, but now he felt the need to cover up. So, he stood and dressed, even going to the decorative mirror above the chaise and straightening his hair. He looked perfectly like himself, if a little more relaxed, but upon closer inspection, he spotted a dark mark coming up just under his collar—where Ro had bitten him.

He didn’t like bruises, and always warned his lovers never to leave them. Yet, he hadn’t even thought of it when Ro had had her teeth against his fragile skin. He wasn’t sure he quite wanted to interrogate what that meant just then.

Ro came out of the head, swathed in a silk robe, just as he was stepping back from the mirror. He turned to her, and they appraised each other.

“I’m not going to invite you to stay for breakfast,” she said, cool and clipped as ever.

Will bristled with the habitual animosity. “No,” he said flatly. “I’ll be going.” He took a step toward the door, but Ro’s voice stopped him.

“Commander,” she said. There was hint of heat in his title—or so he thought.

“Yes, Ensign?” he replied.

“When will I be released from confinement to quarters? I should be on duty this afternoon.”

Will hesitated, knowing he should release her, but then said, with a chilly edge, “You’re excused from that for today. Get some rest. You’ll report to the bridge for overnight watch again tonight.”

He heard the scowl in her voice as she said, “With you?”

“With me, Ensign.”

He waited for the fight, for the backtalk, but he got only, “Yes, sir.”

Will didn’t look back at her as he left her quarters, headed for his own.


	2. Chapter 2

“Picard to Commander Riker.”

Will heard the call when it came the second time—having been sure the first one was a dream—and he fumbled for his communicator on the uniform shirt he had discarded beside his bed before he fell unceremoniously into it at nine hundred hours. Fingers scrabbling for the Starfleet insignia, he managed to grab it before the captain’s voice returned.

“Riker here,” he answered, his voice gruff with sleep.

“Number One,” said Captain Picard, “are you decent to report to the conference room for a briefing?”

At the moment, half-asleep and naked, Will was as far from duty-ready as could be, but he replied, “Give me ten minutes, sir, and I’ll be there.”

“Make it eight. Picard out.”

“Aye, sir,” Will mumbled as he dropped his soiled shirt back to the floor and rolled onto his back. The clock on his bedside table read thirteen-thirty hours. He had only managed four hours of rest. After a full overnight watch and then his encounter with Ensign Ro, he was sore and exhausted, needing at least three more hours of unconsciousness before he was up to a briefing.

However, when the captain summoned his officers, they appeared.

With a labored groan, Will rolled out of bed, ordering the computer to bring the lights up. He blinked against their brightness when they were at full strength.

Yesterday’s clothes were scattered around the carpet haphazardly, his boots abandoned by the door. There was a dull throbbing at the base of his skull, the beginnings of a headache. Grunting, he rose and went to the replicator to order a glass of seltzer and a couple of painkillers before it got worse. He drank the seltzer down in three gulps, even if the carbonation stung his sinuses.

As he toweled himself dry after a hasty shower, he caught sight of the bruise on his neck, which part of him hoped he had imagined. But no, there it was, dark and slightly mottled just below where the rank insignia were on his shirt. He tried not to curse.

If he was being honest, the vestiges of sleep made the entirety of what had happened with Ro seem like a fantasy his exhausted brain had dredged up rather than the reality it had been. He’d walked into Ro’s quarters to put her in her place once and for all. He hadn’t expected that place to be on top of him, spasming wet around his cock as she came for the third time at his hands.

Even as worn out as he was, Will’s blood dropped between his legs at the memory of her lithe body constricting around him with her climax, the hot gush of her release. She’d been so ravenous for it, for _him_ , when ten minutes before she’d been irately claiming she hated his peacocking around the _Enterprise_. She’d called him a whore, even as her lips were pink from sucking him.

It had been by far some of the best sex he’d ever had, and at the same time the most confounding.

Will dressed in a hurry, balling up his other clothes and shoving them into the laundry unit on his way out out of his quarters to the turbolift.

When he arrived in the conference room, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Worf, Data, Deanna, and the captain were already seated and waiting.

“My apologies for my tardiness,” Will offered as he took his place next to Picard. A playful smile had the others forgiving him with murmured greetings.

The captain waved him off, too. “Well,” Picard said, “we have a bit of situation involving the local militia here on Onlyn II.”

Will racked his memory for their overall orders, coming up only with something related to uranium surveys. Nuclear materials had long since been banned in the Federation, but on less civilized planets, they were still traded for weapon-making. The _Enterprise_ had come to Onlyn II to put a stop to nuclear proliferation, maybe? Will couldn’t be sure.

“The first science team,” Picard continued, “has located an anomalous fluctuation in the radiation readings initially collected by their probes, and they have reason to believe that it is indicative of man-made radiation.” He lowered his chin, gravely adding, “Not a natural phenomenon, as they had postulated.”

That did nothing to trigger Will’s recollections, so he stayed conspicuously silent, even as Data produced the science team’s readings. Will bent over the readout dutifully, but it meant nothing to him. In the tablet’s display, he saw his own face reflected, and with it the mark on his neck. He tugged his collar up, but in so doing caught Deanna’s eye across the table. Her gaze tracked to his fingers, her empath’s senses surely picking up on his discomfort.

“And what does this all have to do with the militia?” he asked, a little too sudden and loud.

Geordi glanced his way, a line of concerned curiosity between his brows disappearing under his visor.

Data, who had still been speaking, addressed Will: “I was just getting to that, Commander. There is some evidence of subterranean activity at the southern pole. The chief of the science team believes it might be tunnels.”

“Tunnels for what?” Dr. Crusher prompted.

“Moving nuclear material to be secretly refined in the pole, Doctor,” Data replied, matter of fact.

Concern made the rounds of the table, and Will did his best to play into it, even if his mind kept traitorously returning to Ro’s soft skin, the slight taste of salt on her fingertips as he took them into his mouth. A glance at Deanna betrayed that she could read his lack of focus clearly, and she was studying him to parse it.

Damn it all, she had always been able to read him far too well, and the last thing he needed was his former lover to discern was that he was preoccupied to point of crippling distraction by the woman he had slept with just five hours before. He liked to pride himself on never letting pleasure get in the way of duty, but Ro Laren had managed to get under his skin, there was no doubt about that.

“What’s your opinion, Number One?” Picard asked as all the eyes in the room turned to Will.

Something more had been said, further details about the tunnels and nuclear materials, but he hadn’t heard it. At a loss, he appealed silently to Deanna, who perceived his distress with less-than ringing enthusiasm.

“If I may offer something, Captain,” she said, swooping to Will’s rescue. “Before we send an away team to investigate, we should parlay with the militiamen. With the right tack, we might be able to get them to reveal their hand without putting our people at risk.”

“Mm,” said Picard. “A sound strategy, Counselor. Would you be willing to lead that parlay? Perhaps with Commander Riker.”

Will was about to suggest she take someone—anyone—else, but she preempted him: “I would like to request that Data accompany me, sir.”

The android turned first to Deanna and then to Picard, who nodded. Data said, “Thank you for your confidence, Counselor.”

Deanna smiled. “You are an excellent negotiator, Data.” She shot a pointed look at Will, her expression threatening the talk they would be having later, but then turned back Data. “Shall we go get ready?”

“Mr. Worf,” said the captain, “go with them as security detail.”

Worf stood. “Aye, sir.”

The three of them left the conference room.

“Mr. La Forge,” Picard said, “I’d like you to continue to monitor the radiation.” To Crusher: “Doctor, please be on standby should anything happen.”

“Of course, Captain,” she said as she rose. She followed Geordi out, leaving only Will and Picard at the table.

Will ventured a glance at the captain, who was surveying him with a canny eye.

“I read your report from last night, Number One,” Picard said. “What occurred with Ensign Ro.”

“Yes, sir,” said Will. “It was a regrettable indecent.”

Picard inclined his head. “Indeed it was, and you did right to relieve her of duty. I plan to speak to her this afternoon. Shortly, in fact.”

“Don’t bother, sir,” Will was quick to say, even before he had fully formed what he meant by it.

“Why not?” asked Picard.

Will cleared his throat, knocking together what he wanted to convey. “I mean, sir, that I’d like to deal with her myself. It was me she challenged, and I should be the one to address the issue.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” Picard inquired. He was interested, that much was apparent, but Will didn’t have an exact strategy in mind.

“I, ah, well, sir,” he said, “I’d like to start by keeping her on night watches during my rotation in the next few days. I want to keep her under supervision.”

Picard’s next question had a tenor of skepticism: “What will that change in her behavior?”

Will didn’t know, but something inside him demanded he keep Ro close, at least for a day or so. He said to Picard, “I want her to do everything by the book while she’s on my watch. She won’t like it, but unless she sticks to my orders, I’ll ask you relieve her of conn duty for three weeks.”

“Oh, she _definitely_ won’t like that,” said Picard, a note of amusement in his voice. “You think threatening her will work?”

“It’s worth a shot, sir,” Will offered, only half-convinced himself.

“Perhaps it is.” The captain stood, tugged the hem of his jacket down, and nodded. “I’ll forgo a conversation with her, then, and see to it that she reports to the bridge for the night watch.”

“She already knows she’s expected,” said Will. At Picard’s questioning expression, he added, “I spoke to her this morning.”

If Picard suspected anything was amiss, he didn’t show it. He simply said, “Get yourself a cup of coffee, Number One, and then join me on the bridge.”

“Aye, sir,” said Will.

* * *

He had a plate of pancakes and the prescribed coffee in Ten Forward rather than returning to his quarters, hefty forkfuls put one after another into his mouth, barely chewed.

Guinan, as she brought him a refill of his coffee, asked, “Something on your mind, Commander?” She sounded, as always, guileless, but Will knew exactly how perceptive she could be, and wasn’t prepared to give any of his turmoil away.

He replied, “No, nothing. These are great pancakes.”

“I’ll be sure to tell the replicator that,” Guinan muttered, heading back toward the bar.

Will reported to the bridge after his breakfast, and spent the rest of the afternoon assessing tactics with Captain Picard. They were waiting for a report from Deanna’s parlay party, but it had not yet come. Will spared the time to be concerned for their safety, but with Worf, Data, and a very capable Counselor Troi, he was certain they’d be perfectly fine against even the roughest of militiamen.

There was no reason for him to expect to see Ensign Ro until twenty-three hundred hours, when the night watch began, but somehow every time the turbolift doors opened to usher someone new onto the bridge, he tensed, as if it was her. He’d garnered himself several very baffled reactions to his stares at the newcomers as they entered. He knew how intent his attention could be when it was zeroed in on someone, and they squirmed under it.

His jumpiness didn’t go unnoticed by the captain, but Picard didn’t call Will on it, either in front of the rest of the acting bridge crew or in his ready room privately. Will operated around the embarrassment, still too on-edge to get a hold of himself.

“All right,” said Picard when the ship’s computer announced the end of the watch at the appointed time. “Commander Riker, you have the bridge.”

“Aye, sir,” Will said. “Have a good night, Captain.”

Picard paused by the lift, saying with just the slightest tinge of humor, “You, too, Number One.” And then he was gone.

“Computer,” Will began, “initiate night watch parameters.” At his command, the lights were lowered and the muzziness of the overnight set in. With only four hours of sleep, this was going to be a long shift.

He was in the middle of wide yawn when the turbolift arrived again, this time bringing Ro with it. Will snapped his mouth shut, rolling his shoulders back and lifting his chin to accentuate his height.

There was no hitch of uncertainty in Ro’s gait as she made her way down to the ramp to the conn, announcing herself as she walked: “Ensign Ro Laren reporting for duty.”

“You’re two minutes late, Ensign,” Will said. “This watch begins at twenty-”

“Three hundred hours,” she interrupted. “Yes, sir, I’m aware of that. I encountered the captain in the corridor. We spoke for those two minutes.”

Will clenched his jaw, just managing to ask, “About what?”

Ro turned a suspicious gaze on him, but held her chin high and aloof. “That’s between me and the captain,” she said curtly. Turning her back to Will, she sat at her post and began to assess the state of the ship.

Her chilliness grated on Will’s nerves. It smacked of their normal day-to-day interactions: cold when they weren’t arguing. But a good part of his day had been spent contemplating if she was as distracted by what had happened between them as he. If she proved unaffected, it would only serve to frustrate him more.

Will Riker didn’t get flustered by women.

And yet.

“Ensign,” he said sharply, “tonight you’ll be running six course calculation drills.”

To his satisfaction, he saw her hands freeze over the console, her shoulders going tight. “Drills?” she asked. “Like recruits do?”

“Exactly,” Will replied. “Consider it a refresher exercise.”

Ro, her stillness conveying her rising anger, said, “I have much more important tasks to do. There are calibrations–”

“They can wait,” said Will. “This is your assignment for the night, Ensign. Are you going to tell your commanding officer you won’t do it?”

She gave him a glare over her shoulder, looking him up and down as if trying to make sense of his motives. Her lips compressed into a thin line of displeasure. “You’re punishing me for last night.”

Will sauntered toward her, hands clasped behind his back. “It’s not so much a punishment as a test—of your commitment to Starfleet and its hierarchy of command.” He paused, mostly for effect, before asking, “Are we going to have a problem, Ensign?”

All the attention on the bridge was honed in him and Ro, the silence so tensile it could have been plucked like a string

“No,” Ro said at last. “No problem.”

“No, what?” Will prompted.

The cords in her neck stood out as she swallowed down what Will was sure would have been a sour rejoinder. “No, _sir_ , Commander Riker.”

Last time she’d used his name, she’d been cursing him as he had her at the precipice of orgasm, bare and impaled on his cock. It had been half-moaned and scratchy with pleasure, and just then, there was a vestige of that timbre in how she said it, sending an electric shock of arousal to the base of Will’s spine.

Fortunately, he was able to keep his face impassive. He said, “Very good, Ensign. Proceed.” Taking up the captain’s chair, he added, “Oh, and Ensign Ro?”

She faced him, waiting.

“You’ll do the drills on the main view screen so we can see your progress.”

Rage flickered across her face, so furious Will felt scorched. Only the greenest officers fresh out of the Academy were expected to be subject to such scrutiny, which he and everyone on the bridge well knew. It was most assuredly a punishment, and each person on the watch would have to witness Ro suffer through it.

“Let’s find out if you’re as ‘excellent’ as you claimed last night,” Will said, leaning back in the chair to cross an ankle over his knee.

Ro forced out between gritted teeth, “Aye, sir,” and turned to her console.  
  


* * *

She performed the first two drills more than admirably, and in very good time. Will had every reason to believe the other officers would have applauded if his steel-tipped warning look hadn’t kept them mum.

“Computer,” he said as Ro’s correct calculations were displayed on the main viewer, “what is the time?”

“It is zero one sixteen,” the computer replied.

Will clapped his hands, standing. “Ah, the night is still young. More than enough time for another drill, eh, Ensign?” He drew in a breath, stretching his neck languorously. “You get started. I’ll be right back.”

Ro should have given him a quick, “Aye, sir,” but he didn’t stop to chastise her when she did not. Instead, he went directly into the ready room’s head to relieve himself.

He whistled as he pissed, pleased with the outcome of the night so far. Ro hadn’t brooked any protest despite the second drill being more difficult than the first. The third, Will hoped she was discovering now, would be even more arduous. He grinned to himself.

The toilet flushed and his fly done up again, he strode back into the ready room proper, looking forward to watching Ro struggle through.

“You absolute bastard!”

He came to an abrupt halt as he spotted her standing in the center of the room with her hands balled into fists at her sides, blocking his way to the door. She was livid, her face white with it rather than flushed. The chain of her earring—simpler than the one she had worn yesterday, with its colored beads—was swaying as she shook.

“How dare you make such a fool of me?” she snarled. “Academy drills in front of the entire bridge crew, like I’m a raw novice? You don’t have the right!”

Will didn’t attempt to hide his glee at discomfiting her. It hadn’t been his goal to pick a fight, but he had wanted to upset her; in that he’d succeeded. However, she was doing exactly what she _wasn’t_ supposed to and arguing with him—calling him names instead of working diligently to atone for previous missteps.

When he didn’t immediately reply, Ro advanced on him, her rage frothing. “Is this how you deal with officers who disagree with you? Give them meaningless, time-wasting busy-work, as if they can’t be trusted with real tasks?” She spat again, “Bastard!”

“Lower your voice, Ensign,” Will said before she could continue. His amusement was dwindling, the more common frustration with her bubbling up in his belly.

“What,” she said, “so that they can’t hear your _subordinate_ giving you exactly what you deserve?” Her color was up now, her eyes dark with rancor. “You’re abusing your position to humiliate me.”

Will swung back on the offensive. “ _Are_ you humiliated? You’ve completed your drills with almost no mistakes. Any recruit would be lauded for that level of proficiency.”

“Yes!” Ro cried. “A _recruit_! I have spent years in Starfleet. I am better than your paltry little drills.” She looked away, speechless with fury, her jaw flexing as she ground her teeth.

In profile, Will could appreciate the sharp lines of her face: the pointed, determined chin and malicious set of her mouth. He thought that maybe she was more beautiful angry than collected. He had the pressing desire to go to her, take her by the jaw, and push his tongue into her mouth.

“You’re well on your way to proving you _can’t_ be trusted with real tasks,” he said instead. “This behavior is just as bad as yesterday, if not worse. I could have you formally reprimanded, take it to the captain.” Will added a note of threat: “You’re only here by his request. If you push too hard–”

“Oh,” Ro said, “now you’re trying to ruin my career altogether?”

Will snapped, “You did that all by yourself long before you came to the _Enterprise_.”

She drew back, not a flinch, but the kind of second-guessing herself that Will was aiming for.

He pushed on: “This post is the only second chance you’re going to get. If you screw it up, there are no third chances, so I’d start seriously considering the ramifications of this conversation.”

Ro stood her ground, even if her shoulders had slumped just perceptibly. “I’m not going to simper and bend to you, Riker.” She said it with acerbity, but once again there was a catch of desire in the way she used his name. When she met his eyes again, he saw the lust as well as the malice.

Will’s cock twitched in unwitting response, and before he could rein in his baser urges, he said, “You don’t have to bend, just open.”

Confusion passed over Ro’s brow in the short time it took for him to cross to where she stood, but when he pushed his thigh between her legs, opening them to press against her center, her lips parted and she gave a throaty “ _ah_ ” of surprised interest. Will pushed harder, and she grasped his upper arms to steady herself.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, though it was barely questioning. Her fingers were digging into his biceps, and she was sinking her weight into his thigh, giving an exploratory move of her hips to rub herself against him.

Will didn’t have a ready answer, save for that her raging was getting him hard, and his higher reasoning was failing him as his cock took the lead. Certainly, he wanted to quiet to her and to win the argument, but this wasn’t winning; he had found an exploitable loophole that put an end to the quarrel without really resolving anything.

Truly poor conflict resolution, but Will wasn’t in a position in think overmuch about it because Ro had started to grind in earnest against his leg and her lips were pressed to his neck. As she licked over the mark she’d left that morning, he hauled her to him and, forcing her face up, kissed her.

She made a little sound of satisfaction into his mouth that went straight to his cock, and he found he was relieved, too. What had happened that morning wasn’t going to go ignored. That wasn’t to say they were about to have a conversation about it. No, they were going to repeat it—or some variation of it—in the captain’s ready room while they were both on duty.

Ro broke the kiss first, to breathe and say, “Harder.” She held his arms in two vise-like grips, her eyes closed. “I’m close.”

“So fast,” Will said against her ear. He was tempted to pull back to tease her, but time was not a luxury they had, and he was held rapt by the hushed noises of pleasure she was making with each thrust of her center along his thigh. Her need was fueling him, making his cock ache to be inside her again.

Her movements grew more desperate, and she flattened herself against his chest. The “ _oh_ ” she uttered as she climaxed sounded almost pained, warm dampness spreading just above Will’s knee.

Ro sagged into him, spent, but he continued to push his leg against her, until she was trembling with overstimulation. “Stop,” she said weakly. “Riker.”

There, again, was the wanting ring of his name. It snaked into his ears and curled in delightfully wicked spirals in his mind, demanding he act.

Without warning, Will pulled his leg away and began to walk her back toward the desk behind them. She stayed upright only because of his hold on her, but it wasn’t long she had to stand anyway. Just long enough for Will to unfasten her pants and shove them insistently down past her knees. She let him.

Taking her by the waist, he settled her at the edge of the desk, spreading her legs wide for him to stand between them. He ran his palms up her thighs, to their apex, where she was glistening wet and ready.

She looked up at him from where she sat, making a show of licking her lower lip as she reached for the fly of his pants. In seconds, her fingers were around his cock again, her thumb caressing the underside. Will would have liked to have stood there for a good ten minutes, just letting her stroke him off while she dampened her mouth again and again with her pink tongue, but he also needed to feel her around him.

With insistent hands, he shoved his pants over his hips, freeing his cock. He took it from her and steered it toward her center. She landed her long-fingered hands on his ass by way of encouragement, pulling him in to enter her.

He had to bend his knees slightly to get low enough, but then he was sliding inside, her heat enveloping him. His eyelids drooped at the feeling, his mouth falling open on an exhalation. She held him to her firmly, her brow resting at the center of his chest.

“Fuck me, Riker,” she said. “Fuck me while they’re all standing out there.”

Will shot a glance at the ready room door, which had no lock on it, but instead of feeling his erection flag, it twitched with more blood, insistent on doing exactly what Ro instructed. He pushed himself infinitesimally deeper, eliciting a groan from her.

“Can you come again?” he asked. He didn’t wait for an answer, simply saying, “Touch yourself.”

One of Ro’s hands dutifully left his buttock and was moved between her legs. He could feel her making circles at her clitoris as he began to thrust into and out of her in short, purposeful strokes. The sharp slap of flesh was, for a short time, the only sound in the dead quiet of the ready room.

Will held her around the back, his hands gripping the staticky fabric of her uniform jacket. She kept her face turned down, nearly buried in his stomach, but he could feel warm puffs of her breath as they both worked at her core. She was slippery and hot as a furnace around his cock, and the bump of her fingertips along his shaft set the pace they both needed. Pleasure was building, radiating up and through his lower belly.

“I’m coming!” Ro ground out as she went over the edge a second time. Her release gushed between them, making a wet sound that tipped Will into ecstasy. With a jerk, he stilled, pouring himself into her.

They were both shaking as they came down, holding onto each other to keep from tumbling into a boneless heap. Will had come so hard he’d seen stars, and from what he could make out of Ro’s expression down his belly, she was as blissful as he was.

“Bridge to Commander Riker.”

Will snapped into awareness, first looking to the still-closed ready room door and then slapping blindly at his chest for his communicator. “Riker here.”

“Just checking if everything is okay, sir,” said the tactical lieutenant. “Ensign Ro got up to follow you against protocol, and–”

“Everything’s ship-shape, Lieutenant,” Will said. “Ensign Ro and I will be out shortly. We just had some things we needed to discuss.” Tapping the Starfleet insignia, he ended the communication.

His softening cock slipped easily out of Ro, who brought her legs together as he stepped away. She hopped down from the desk and, with remarkable grace for someone with her pants around her shins, disappeared into the head.

Will put himself to rights, quickly ordering up a towel from the replicator to wipe up the smeared leavings on the desk’s edge. By the time it was tossed away, Ro had reappeared, looking perfectly put-together.

They stood unspeaking across from each other for a beat before she headed purposefully toward the door. Will stepped into her path.

“My orders still stand,” he said. “You have your drills to finish tonight.”

Ro huffed, but nodded. Apparently _some_ of the fight had gone out of her, though Will didn’t think fucking each other mute was going to be a permanent solution to their problems. He let her pass, following her a pace later.

He received four inquisitive glances from the crew, but when he offered no explanation, they went back to their duties.

He took his seat at the center of the bridge, cutting his eyes to the right to look at the back of Ro’s head. The main viewer was black.

“Ensign,” he stared, “are you working on your third drill?”

Ro answered, “I solved it, sir,” and put the solution up on the viewer. “As we discussed in your ready room.”

Will looked from the neatly done drill to where Ro sat, looking utterly self-satisfied. When she’d had time to do that, he was sure he’d never know.

“Of course,” he said. “Well done, Ensign. I believe you have a fourth now.”

She turned slyly back to her console. “Aye, sir.”


End file.
